A new bill will allow a person to be tried and convicted of a criminal offence without seeing all the information relied on by the Crown and without the right to be present, the NZ Law Society says.

Chairman of the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission and Superior Court Judge Arnold Ogden Jones II has been accused of trying to bribe an FBI officer with “a couple of cases of beer”.

According to his federal indictment, Judge Jones asked an FBI officer to obtain some text messages between two phone numbers.

“I want down low – see what you can do without drawing attention,” he allegedly said. “This involves family so I don’t want anybody to know.”

After assuring the agent he could be trusted “one million per cent,” the judge offered “a couple of cases of beer” in payment.

The agent later told the judge he had a warrant for the text messages with Jones replying that the agent’s “pay check” was in the back of his car.

The pair eventually agreed on a price of US$100 for the texts. After the agent handed over a disk which purportedly held the messages, Judge Jones was arrested.

Jones faces charges on three counts: promise/payment of a bribe to a public official, promise/payment of a gratuity to a public official, and attempted corrupt influence of official proceeding. If he is convicted, he could face up to 37 years imprisonment.